Broken Walls
by lighthouseofchoices
Summary: Gabriel Duncan has always been a very confident boy, but when people start mocking him for his weight. Will that confidence remain or will it be shattered?


"Okay guys, listen up. I need someone to babysit Toby today" Announced Amy as she placed some pancakes on her kids's plates "And I won't take no for an answer"

"Well, I can't today" Replied PJ "Emmett and I will go to a concert. I've already got the tickets"

"So you have money to get some concert tickets but not to have breakfast at your own apartment" Said Bob with a raised eyebrow.

"Exactly" Said his eldest son. Bob sighed in return. But he wouldn't really complain. Even though he wasn't as vocal about it as Amy, he loved having all his kids around together for breakfast.

"Teddy?" Asked Amy as she sat down beside her husband ans started eating her food.

"Sorry mom, but I'm going to Ivy's house to study. You know we have some finals coming up and I need to get perfect grades for college" Teddy said before filling her mouth with a bit of pancakes with syrup.

"Well, it will have to be you Gabe" Amy concluded as she stared at her son.

"But mom! I...I-I also need to study!"

"Oh, please. You don't study. You are fourteen years late for that excuse" Amy mocked him as she kept on eating. Gabe huffed but nodded.

"Okay, I'll take care of him. But can you really trust me with Toby?" Gabe tried to make his way out of it, but deep down he knew he wouldn't win.

"That's why I'm going to ask Mrs. Dabney to keep an eye on you two" She replied with an evil smirk, or at least, that's what it looked like to Gabe.

"Mrs. Dabney?! Mom, please I'm fourteen I can take care of my own baby brother. I don't need a babysitter" The boy complained.

"Oh, you don't? That's not what you said just a minute ago. You are babysitting him and Mrs, Dabney is going to babysit you and that's the end of our discussion" Gabe sighed heavily.

"Okay, but I can't assure you the house will be clean when you get home" Gabe grinned. His mother smiled right back at him.

"Well, then I don't know whether you are getting a new videogame for your birthday or not" Gabe gasped.

"A new videogame?! Wait...It's violent, right?"

"That depends on how clean the house is"

"Wait, a new videogame? We nev-"

"Shut up, Bob" Ordered Amy.

"Wait mom, why do you need a babysitter? I thought dad had the day off today" Teddy asked while finishing the last of her breakfast.

"I did" Bob whispered.

"But now he doesn't. He will come to me to my club meeting with the girls. We are going to be having dinner at a restaurant and since they want to meet Charlie I'm taking her with me. So we will be back home a bit late. Do you think you can manage?" The woman asked her favorite troublemaker. She knew she was a bit severe sometimes, but he was still fourteen, a child himself.

"It's okay, mom. I can do it" Gabe reassured her, he would try to behave the best he could. He would be just chatting with friends anyways so he could take care of his brother.

"Okay then" And with that the conversation ended.

Their morning continued like that, a few minor arguments would make their way into their family breakfast but everything was solved rather quickly. The only thing that no one knew about but it stayed in Gabe's mind was a text he got from his friend-enemy Jo.

Now, their mother usually didn't want them to use their phone at the table no matter what meal they were having, but it was just a text and Amy had to go change Toby's clothes because he had spilled some juice on his new shirt.

"Hey fatass I can't chat today mom wants me to go take care of my grandma"

Gabe frowned at this, not because Jo wouldn't be able to chat that day, but because no one, not even Jo, had ever called him that way. He had never really paid any kind of attention to his weight. He had always thought that he was normal, but apparently he wasn't. He turned his head to look at PJ. PJ was skinny. He then looked at himself for a second, thinking about the differences between his body and his brother's. He had wider shoulders, and now that he thought about it, he did have more fat in his face and body in general than his brother. He was also shorter. Maybe that was the problem, he was just short and once he finished growing he would lose all the extra weight.

Right?

Whatever, it was just Jo being Jo.

"Gabe? Everything okay, son?" Bob asked his child, interrupting his train of thoughts. The boy looked up at his father and shook his head up and down.

"Yup. I'm fine, dad" He replied before grabbing his phone once again to text his friend. Bob kept his gaze fixed on his child for some seconds, but then he stood up and started grabbing the empty plates from the table. But once he reached Gabe's, he realized that his boy hadn't finished eating his pancakes. He frowned at this, Gabe never left any food unless he wasn't feeling well.

"You didn't finish your breakfast" Gabe turned his head to look at the plate his dad was holding and simply shrugged.

"I'm not hungry" He replied before focusing once again on his phone.

"If you are not hungry then...Can I have the rest of your pancakes?" Asked PJ eyeing the sweet food from his chair.

"Go for it" Muttered Gabe without looking at his brother. PJ quickly took the food from his father's hands and started eating what was left of it.

Bob sighed. There were days he didn't know how to deal with his kids.

That afternoon after both PJ and Teddy had left to do what they had planned for the day, Gabe was watching some TV in the living-room, also watching his parents as they were preparing to leave.

"Bob!" Amy called from upstairs "Don't even think of taking that bug's tie with you today!" She warned just as his father was entering the living-room. Gabe smirked and watched as his father started taking it off.

"W-What are you saying, Amy? Of course I wouldn't take it to your club meeting!" He exclaimed as he threw the tie to his son, who quickly hid it under one of the couch's pillows. Some seconds later, Amy walked down the stairs holding Toby in one arm while holding a red tie in the other.

"Gabe put that tie to wash after we are gone" The woman instructed her child as he placed her youngest son on the couch next to his brother. She frowned "Gabe, where's Charlie?" She asked.

"I don't know" Gabe replied as he stared at the TV screen.

"Gabe! How can you not know?! How do you expect me to trust in you if you los-"

"Surprise!" Charlie exclaimed as she suddenly appeared from under the coffee table. Gabe chuckled.

"Well done, Charlie!" He exclaimed as he high fived his baby sister before taking her in his arms and giving her to his mother "What were you saying?" He asked his mother with a playful smile dancing on his lips. Amy arched an eyebrow and took her daughter in her arms.

"So funny" She said in pure sarcasm. Bob sighed as he finished putting on his last piece of cloth.

"Although I would love to see you arguing with Gabe all day, because that would give me some lazy time, we have to leave"

"Okay, let's go" Amy said as she and her husband put on their coats and she grabbed her purse "Gabe, make sure to give him some fruit in a bit and then give him his dinner. Both of your dinners are in the oven, you just need to heat them up a bit. His is in his green plate and yours is in a normal one. You have all the emergency numbers on the fridge and-"

"Mom, we'll be okay" Gabe interrupted her as he softly placed a hand on Toby's head. Toby didn't seem to mind since he was too busy playing with a stuffed dolphin.

"You can trust them, honey" Bob wrapped one arm around Amy, leading her and his daughter to the door "We can call them later if yoou want us to" Amy nodded and after saying their goodbyes, they finally left.

Gabe turned to look at his one year old brother and smiled "Well Toby, it seems we'll be both alone for some time" He told his baby who simply stared at him and laughed, which made his older brother chuckle "Well at least one of us is happy" He then took his laptop and opened it before entering the chat room he had with his friends from school.

As he was waiting for them to come online, his mind went back to what had happened that morning.

"Hey fatass I can't chat today mom wants me to go take care of my grandma"

"Hey fatass I can't chat today mom..."

"Hey fatass I can't chat..."

"Hey fatass"

He sighed and shook his head, as if moving it would take that text from his mind. Luckily, some of his friends had come online, so he wouldn't have to think about anything. Unfortunately, after just an hour someone knocked on the door, which made him sigh and leave his laptop on the coffee table, standing up to see who was bothering him.

Of course it would be Mrs. Dabney.

"Oh, Mrs. Dabney what an unpleasant surprise! What do I owe this torture that is your presence?" He asked with a poker face, the woman stared at him, chuckled mockingly and then let herself in the house.

"Your mother asked me to keep an eye on you, and since well you are you, I will have to come every hour" She stood next to Toby, who was playing on the carpet, and stared at him "I see Gabe number two is doing well" She commented.

"Mom is just too dramatic. And as you can see, he is perfectly fine. So can you leave now so I can continue training him in the fine art of pranking?" He grinned at her and she rolled her eyes.

"I'll leave, but I will be back when you least expect it"

"That means when you remember to come?"

"Exactly"

The hours that went by until dinner time were pretty calm and funny. At one point he stopped to give his brother some sliced up fruit and then he stopped some other times to change him. Once it was time for dinner, he closed his laptop and took his baby brother in his arms, taking him to the kitchen. He sat Toby on his special chair and went to the oven to fetch the baby's food.

Once he opened it, his hand instantly went over to the green plate, not really noticing the other one. He knew it was there, but for some reason he just didn't take it. But he didn't think much of it.

He heat the food just a bit and then started feeding Toby. Right when he had finished feeding him, the phone started ringing so he quickly went to get it from the living-room and then went back to the kitchen, to make sure that his brother wouldn't make any mess.

"Hello?" He answered as he cleaned Toby's mouth with a disgusted expression on his face. He didn't know how his brother could eat that mushy stuff and enjoy it "Oh, hey mom...Yes, he just finished eating...Yes, he is okay...No, the house is not on fire. Mom you need to trust me more" He snorted at his own words "No, you don't, today it's just a good day for you"

"Remember your birthday present, Gabe" Amy sang through the phone. He could hear her smile just in her voice. It made him roll his eyes.

"Okay mom"

"Did you eat?"

Did he? No...He didn't. Wasn't he supposed to eat with Toby? Didn't he have his own dinner in the oven?

He quickly went to check, and there it was. It was a piece of beef with some vegetables. It looked simple but, for some reason, it seemed like a bit too much.

"Gabe? Are you there, honey?"

"Uhm, yeah mom I'm here. I just couldn't hear you for a second. I...I did eat. I ate with Toby" He took the plate in his hand and walked over to the trash can, throwing the food that was in there.

"Fatass"

"So when will you be back?...Half an hour?...Okay, then. We'll be waiting. Bye mom" He then hung up the phone and looked at the trash can.

Why had he done that? He wasn't too sure, but luckily his brother started crying so he didn't have time to think about it. He just left both plates in the sink and took Toby in his arms, trying to calm him down.

Some hours later, and after Teddy had come back home and PJ had assured Amy that he had made it safely to his apartment, both parents were alone in the kitchen, cleaning up some mess Gabe and Toby had left behind.

"Well, would you look at that? Gabe proved that he can be responsible" She said excitedly, but after looking into her husbands eyes she shrugged "Yeah, we were lucky. He will go back to being a troublemaker tomorrow" Both chuckled at this "Hey Bob, do you mind taking out the trash? I'm going to put Toby and Chalie to bed"

"Sure, afterwards I'll go help you" He really didn't want to do anything, but he knew he had too, or else, he would sleep on the couch and since he was a rather big guy, the couch was just too uncomfortable. Once she left the kitchen, he walked over to the trash can and took the trash out of it "It's a bit heavy tonight" He muttered to himself, and just out of curiosity he opened the bag.

Was that meat and vegetables? Wasn't that what Amy had left for Gabe to eat?

He frowned at this "But he said he ate..." He wondered out loud. After some seconds he simply closed the bag and took it out. He would talk to his son after putting his youngest children to bed.

While taking care of Charlie and Toby and even while watching a football game before going to bed, he couldn't take his mind off of Gabe. Now, his kids and pretty much everyone knew that when it came to being a father he wasn't the smartest one around, and his kids outsmarted him all the time. But just as Amy was Mama Bear, Bob considered himself Papa Bear. He always seemed to know whether any of his kids was not doing okay, or when there was something wrong going on.

And Gabe was giving him those vibes.

But whatever thoughts he was having about he decided to discard them. Gabe was surely okay, he was a smart kid. He would just keep an eye on him the next day. Maybe his son only had an upset stomach.

Upstairs, in what used to be both PJ's and Gabe's bedroom, the fourteen year old boy was getting ready for bed as he always did. He put on his grey t-shirt and some black sweatpants. He was about to get under the covers when his stomach growled from anger. He frowned, and realized that he hadn't eaten anything since lunch. Had he really skipped dinner?

Yes, he had.

He shook his head and decided to just go to sleep, he would have a big breakfast the next day. But as he was getting under the covers he caught the mirror from the corner of his eye. He turned his head to look at it and after thinking for a bit, he stood up and took his shirt of, fixing his gaze on the mirror.

He was fat. How hadn't he noticed this before? He placed both hands on his tummy, and then grabbed the skin around his body. He was just so...big. He then started thinking about all the times he had eaten fattening food like chips, chocolate or cookies. He then thought about his brother. Tall, skinny, perfect. And then about his father, who had managed to lose weight and was also tall but more muscular. He bit his lower and decided to lose some weight. But how could he do that? He did go to baseball practice and was still fat.

Maybe he just had to stop eating.

"Just for a while" He whispered to himself as he put his shirt on and then finally got under the covers.


End file.
